Media sales fell 2.6% at Amazon in the second quarter ended June 30, 2015, compared to the second period of 2014. The drop in media sales was due entirely to a decline in international sales where revenue fell 12% to $2.09 billion. The decline overseas was blamed on foreign currency fluctuations; excluding changes in currency, international media sales would have risen 3%, Amazon said. In North America, sales in the media group, home to books and e-books, increased 6%, to $2.62 billion.
For the entire company, Amazon's sales increased 20%, to $23.18 billion; excluding foreign exchange, sales would have risen 27%. The company also managed to post a small profit with net income of $92 million compared to a loss of $126 million in last year's second quarter. The profit came as a surprise to analysts, who had been expecting the company to have a loss in the period. The revenue gain was led by AWS, the company's cloud services unit, where sales jumped 81% to $1.82 billion.
In the press release announcing results, Amazon listed almost 30 major achievements in the quarter. The one most related to books was the introduction of an upgraded Kindle Paperwhite. Among the other developments that could impact book sales were the opening of an online store in Mexico, the launch of Prime free same-day delivery in 14 U.S. metro areas, and the expansion of the Fire HD Kids Edition tablet to the U.K. and Germany.
